could have been treated much more delicately; as it was, there could be little doubt but that the discovery of the plot had prejudiced the mind of Elizabeth against Spain.  “From that dust,” concluded the Duke, “has resulted all this dirt.”  It could hardly be matter of surprise, either to Philip or his Viceroy, that the discovery by Elizabeth of a plot upon their parts to take her life and place the crown upon the head of her hated rival, should have engendered unamiable feelings in her bosom towards them.  For the moment, however, Alva’s negotiations were apparently successful.

On the first of May, 1573, the articles of convention between England and Spain, with regard to the Netherland difficulty, had been formally published in Brussels.  The Duke, in communicating the termination of these arrangements, quietly recommended his master thenceforth to take the English ministry into his pay.  In particular he advised his Majesty to bestow an annual bribe upon Lord Burleigh, “who held the kingdom in his hand; for it has always been my opinion,” he continued, “that it was an excellent practice for princes to give pensions to the ministers of other potentates, and to keep those at home who took bribes from nobody.”

On the other hand, the negotiations of Orange with the English court were not yet successful, and he still found it almost impossible to raise the requisite funds for carrying on the war.  Certainly, his private letters showed that neither he nor his brothers were self-seekers in their negotiations.  “You know;” said he in a letter to his brothers, “that my intention has never been to seek my private advantage.  I have only aspired for the liberty of the country, in conscience and in polity, which foreigners have sought to oppress.  I have no other articles to propose, save that religion, reformed according to the Word of God, should be permitted, that then the commonwealth should be restored to its ancient liberty, and, to that end, that the Spaniards and other soldiery should be compelled to retire.”

The restoration of civil and religious liberty, the, establishment of the great principle of toleration in matters of conscience, constituted the purpose to which his days and nights were devoted, his princely fortune sacrificed, his life-blood risked.  At the same time, his enforcement of toleration to both religions excited calumny against him among the bigoted adherents of both.  By the Catholics he was accused of having instigated the excesses which he had done everything in his power to repress.  The enormities of De la Marck, which had inspired the Prince’s indignation, were even laid at the door of him who had risked his life to prevent and to chastise them.  De la Marck had, indeed, more than counterbalanced his great service in the taking of Brill, by his subsequent cruelties.  At last, Father Cornelius Musius, pastor of Saint Agatha, at the age of seventy-two, a man highly esteemed by the Prince of Orange, had